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DUPNA Song of the Month

Each month DUPNA features a beloved Dance as the "Song of the Month." These are complete recordings of live Dances of Universal Peace, available as downloads via links in our Members Newsletter, as well as here at our website. We are archiving all of these recordings so that you can download at any time and add to your collection. (Browsers handle downloading differently.) You can also play these songs on your tablet or play and download these songs with your Android phone.

Each of the Dances of Universal Peace is a spiritual teaching. Every time we gather together and join our voices and hearts, we strengthen that vibration in ourselves and in the universe. How often have you left a retreat or Dance circle wanting to sing a song and only a fragment of it is remaining? Having recordings of songs allows us to take these songs into our daily life, into our practice, and to hold them deeply in our heart. Sharing them with fellow dancers and musicians allows them to spread far and wide. In the coming months you will likely discover new gems and become reacquainted with old favorites.   

Our Song of the Month for May honors the Holy Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Listen to a variation of Altisimo Corazón led by Narayan Waldman at the Crossing the Veil retreat in Ohio, 2010.

Sarasvati Marilynn Carstens created the Dance based on traditional words and melody. A write-up of this popular Dance has recently been added to the Leaders Guild library on the DUPIN website. http://www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org/home.shtm

Altisimo Corazón is a devotional dance about the flourishing of the light of the "Divine Heart," the Altisimo or Highest Heart, within the entire creation and within each of us. It was inspired by the pilgrims at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe who walk into the Basilica on their knees with intense devotion. The song is a traditional one from the Aztec people. It refers to Quetzalcoatl who has had many manifestations both as a God and as a King since 1200 B.C. When portrayed as the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl represents the blending of heaven and earth. Quetzalcoatl has been called the god of the breath of life, the god of rebirth. He is associated with the planet Venus, the brightest star in the evening sky. This traditional song is often the last song sung before sunrise on the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe (hwa da LOO pay), December 12. At the Sacred Heart Church in San Jose, California, after a night of dancing, singing and chanting, the congregation sings this song as the children throw petals from the altar flowers over the Aztec dancers during their recessional into the light of the new morning. For many years, it was sung at the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe at her Basilica below the Hill of Tepeyac, just outside Mexico City. This is also the home of the Aztec Mother Goddess, Tonatzín. "Altisimo Corazón" has a dual usage with both Aztecs and Christians. For some of the indigenous people it is Tonatzín, and for Catholics it is Mary the mother of God who lives on through Our Lady of Guadalupe. For others, this song is sung in celebration of the banning of human sacrifice of the heart to the gods by Quetzalcoatl. This dance uses mudras of Tonatzín and Mary as they offer grace and comfort to all who come to them and as they shine light through their hands down to the earth. The touch-brush step is used by Aztec dancers in California.

There Is Love, by Shivadam Adam Burke, is the Song of the Month for March. Recorded in the historic Groom Creek Schoolhouse in Prescott during a Dance Leader Training with Darvesha, Yaqin and others, this Dance was inspired by Mathew 18:20, along with some Peter, Paul and Mary. Here, "Thy Name" is any name of the One Beloved.

Our first Song of the Month for 2012 is the Tara Zikr by Darvesha. This recording was made at the Prescott Dance Leader Training in March 2011 and features Parvati Burke calling out the attributes of Tara. Om Tare!

In The Cave Of My Heart - This song from the Mary Magdalene cycle of dances seems to me to resonate with this season of the birth of love and light midst the darkness of the Winter Solstice. According to one modern Magdalene teacher, “Mary is finally rising from the hidden caves of our unconscious.” Caves have long been a symbol that leads us deep into the mysteries of the divine feminine. In one of the legends of Mary Magdalene, she is believed to have spent the last years of her life in the Cave of St. Baume in or near Provence, France, where she lived, taught, and meditated until her death. During meditation, the mystical meaning of the cave as the dark womb of creation arose through this song, bringing together the many threads of symbolism in the love story of Yeshua and Maryam. One could imagine her singing a prayer to her Beloved from deep within the cave of her heart. ~ Amina Linda McMakin December 2, 2011. Visit www.magdalamatrix.com for more Mary Magdalene Dances.

Our Song of the Month for November is One Song by Hearts of Song, Bari Ramsey and Hayat Bain. "One Song" is part of a series of songs that I am composing by adapting the poems of Jallaluddin Rumi. This song came to me in the rarified atmosphere of Wilderness Dance Camp, 2009, while overlooking Flathead Lake. To me, Rumi's words in this poem throw down a challenge to us, to adjust our attitudes that contribute to all these distracting "distinctions and differences" that we perceive in our lives. I believe the hammered dulcimer is a quite fitting accompaniment for Rumi, as the instrument, originally called "santoor", was apparently developed in the cultured (i.e. Sufi) portion of Iranian society about 1,000 years ago. Toward the One, John Bari Ramsey

In honor of Samhain and Day of the Dead, our Song of the Month for October is Zikr I, aka The Bloody Carcass Zikr. Led by Narayan Waldman, at Wilderness Camp 2010. The Rumi poem Checkmate provides the reference:
"A hide is soaked in tanning liquor and becomes leather.
If the tanner did not rub the acid,
the hide would get foul-smelling and rotten.
The soul is a newly skinned hide, bloody and gross.
Work on it with manual discipline,
and the bitter tanning acid of grief and you'll become lovely
and very strong."

Our Song of the Month for September, Vilca Yaku Mama, features one of our next-generation Dance leaders, Arjun Calero, from Columbia. Several camps this summer welcomed our brothers and sister from Columbia and we honor their friendship and gifts. This Dance was recorded at Flathead Lake, MT, at Wilderness Camp. This Dance came into existence after Arjun finished singing a praise chant to a lake. As a response, melody, words and movements arrived in the following moments, almost as a transmission from the water itself. There is great reverence for water in the teachings of the descendants of the Inca people. The words for this dance come from three different types of Quechua language spoken by descendants in Peru, Ecuador, and the Amazon. It is a dance that honors the sacredness of water, including its unique and essential qualities that make life possible in this creation. It is a dance that is felt in the heart – a love song to the sacred water.
The words are:
vilca yaku mama - mother of the sacred waters
atun pacha mama - great mother cosmos
ambi sonqo yai - remedy of my heart, you are so dear to me

July's Song of the month is Abwoon to the 4 Directions, led by Hannah Liechty, age 13.It was recorded in Ithaca, June 2011 Hannah has been attending Ithaca Dance Camp since before she was born. Hannah first experienced this Dance at a retreat led by Munir Reynolds, which she was attending with her parents, Naomi Wilansky and Dan Liechy. All three of them felt a connection to the Dance, and several months later encountered it again, and learned that the originator was Ayesha Lauenborg, Naomi's first Dance mentor. The Dance came through her when she visited Ground Zero and was walking around the perimeter, praying; thus the Shemayas to the four directions. The family was deeply impressed by the way the Dance came into their lives and has been leading it ever since.

Our Song of the Month for June is Healing Time, led by Bernie Heideman, melody by Kate Poole. Enjoy it as you celebrate the summer Solstice and the Dance camp season swings into full gear. Recorded by Rahmana at Wilderness Camp 2010.

The Song of the Month for May is What's Next by Maitreya Jon Stevens, one of our next-generation of Dance leaders.

This month's feature is Rabia's Song by Wali van der Zwan and Zuleicha. This version was led by Zareen Connie Delaney at Lava Hot Springs in April, 2010. You can also hear the voice of Wayne Talmadge accompanying her.

Celebrate the last days of winter with our Song of the Month, Be Melting Snow by Lila Flood, inspired by the Rumi poem of the same title.  Led here by Farrunnissa and recorded at Wali Ali's retreat in Charlottesville, VA 2010.

Our Song of the Month for January is the Gayatri Mantra, led by Bernie Heideman at Wilderness Camp 2010.  Sing this most powerful mantra and call upon the beings of light from all planes of existence to bring the Divine Light of illumination to our consciousness. For more of Bernie's music, see www.bernieheideman.com.

Allah Ho Akbar, by Munir Reynolds, is November's Song of the Month. This version, led by Munir, was recorded at Wilderness Camp 2010. Sing this song from your hara center, with your mouth wide open, and feel the power of Allah moving through your body.

No Part Left Out by Kathleen Hannan, here led by Darvesha at Wilderness Camp 2010, is our offering for September, 2010. Download and enjoy this beautiful song of deep insight and wholeness and read the story behind the Dance.

Amen Alleluia  Enjoy our August, 2010, offering, this song of praise and celebration created and led by Narayan Eric Waldman. Recorded at Wilderness Camp 2009 by Rahmana Elizabeth Sayre.

If you have a Dance recording you would like to feature, contact Rahmana.

In order for any recording to appear as a "Song of the Month," it must have the approval of the Dance's originator and leader. We will be happy to verify that before posting to our site.